By Amin Kef Sesay
On Saturday, the 6th February, 2021, SLAJ @ 50, was launched by the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Ramadhan Swarray at the Harry Yansaneh Memorial Hall, SLAJ Headquarters on 56 Campbell Street, Freetown.
Among the various individuals that presented statements on that memorable day was the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmed Sahid Nasralla.
The SLAJ President started by saying some 50 years ago brave men and women came together and founded an Association that will serve as a torch for not only a profession that is called journalism but for society at large.
Furthering, he told the audience that at a time when the country had just introduced the one-party system of governance and critical voices were almost silenced and a law that was like an albatross on the neck of journalists was introduced to silence a beautiful profession that comforts the afflicted, SLAJ was then born.
He paid glowing tributes to the icons of SLAJ, ie the founding fathers and mothers some of whom, he said, are still around adding that those heroes and heroines deserve a special place in the Association’s history book.
Nasralla said those pioneers laid the foundation that generations that came after them found it easier to build upon underscoring how they weathered the storm when not many people had the courage to be counted saying they sacrificed everything they had so that future generations of journalists will have the freedom to practice their profession.
He continued by stating that those founding members, who are still alive, are appreciated and recognised, naming: Christo Johnson, Bernadette Cole, Daisy Bona and Hon. Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.
“We want to say thank you for bequeathing to us an Association that is viewed as the ‘last man standing’ in a society that continues to demonstrate a lack of commitment to the general good,” he continued to pay glowing tribute also assuring that the current crop of journalists shall also handover the baton to the next generation with pride just like they did.
Nasralla intimated that the past 50 years have been characterised by vicissitudes and successes but said the latter is what he will briefly focus on.
He said SLAJ has been able to maintain its independence and integrity which, according to him, is something worth celebrating.
“In a country where ugly politics has crept into all facets of society and organisations, SLAJ has remained a very solid organisation that has enjoyed the trust and confidence of its members as well as the public,” he asserted.
He pointed out that as an Association they have been able to capacitate their regional bodies, making them viable and semi-autonomous as they carry out their own planned activities.
“We have been able to attract more members; everyone wants to be part of SLAJ because they know it is a body that epitomises independence, is forward-looking and progressive,” he maintained also revealing how they are doing their launching in their hall, the Harry Yansaneh Memorial Hall which, he said, has been refurbished revealing that the current SLAJ Executive campaigned on the platform of giving the membership a befitting Secretariat which is exactly what they have done.
President Nasralla stated that if SLAJ was a human being, no doubt at 50 he or she will have lofty plans for his or her children and grandchildren adding that the next decades are going to be challenging moments for the media landscape especially with the emergence of the social media and the determination to avoid the ‘path dependence syndrome’, quoting Dr. Mohamed Gibril Sesay saying they will not continue with ‘business as usual’.
He said SLAJ will position itself to fit into the next generation.
Our next 50 years should see us better than we are today both in terms of membership, welfare issues, professionalism, patriotis, and self-reliance. The kind of SLAJ we want to see should be the concern of every member of this noble Association,” he expressed optimism.
The result oriented SLAJ President told the audience that as an Executive, they have drawn up a calendar of events that will run for the whole year, because it is a once in a lifetime event so they want to give it all the razzmatazz it deserves.
He disclosed that SLAJ is going to host events throughout the country adding that the Regional Executives will also be having activities at their district level.
Nasralla further revealed how they have invited foreign guests, one of them Professor Kari Kari from the MFWA in Ghana saying he has consented to come to Sierra Leone and deliver a public lecture as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration if COVID-19 permits but said if COVID does not permit they will still do it virtually.
He said they are also working hard to secure land and turn the sod for the construction of the Golden Jubilee SLAJ Headquarters adding that indeed they have begun the celebration of a turning point in history saying in a few months from now, precisely June 5th, they will officially be celebrating 50 years of existence.
He said it is significant because it is also the year the Association has started the journey towards free and professional media.
“It is also significant as we are celebrating the death of the obnoxious Criminal Libel Law,” he maintained.
According to him it would not be appropriate to say they have come of age, because that happened 29 years ago.
“But today we begin another journey to climb to the mountain of professionalism and economic prosperity for the media in Sierra Leone,” he said reiterating that it’s a journey.
Nasralla said they are starting a new journey, saying it is a journey that will now take the Association into the millennium adding that as media practitioners begin that journey, it is but fitting that they celebrate the first half of the millennium.
He said there is an old African saying which goes … “the lizard which fell from the top of the Cotton tree said if no one will praise me, I will praise myself.” “This is why when you see a lizard it is always shaking its head up and down,” he pointed out.
He furthered that as they will begin to celebrate the Dr. Sam Hollists and all those journalists after them who spent time in jail; locked up in cells with a single bucket containing human excreta, and having to inhale the disgusting smell throughout, it’s a journey.
The SLAJ Prezo said as they celebrate those journalists who got to experience the slaps of the Sierra Leone Police, which caused lightning to flash without any rain, the vicious kicks, the beatings with a gun butt, the solitary nights from police cells to prisons; from courtrooms to prisons, again it’s a journey.
He said today, they will begin to celebrate freedom, freedom from being called a criminal, freedom from accusations of criminal libel without proof, freedom from Defamation could not be defended, it’s all a journey.
“Like gold, we have been put through the fire and like gold, we have to be polished for us to shine. Today, we begin to celebrate the end of one journey and the beginning of another one,” he averred.
He said like the lizards, we must stop and celebrate, saying 50 years is a long time saying members need to reflect from where they have come from to where they are now.
“This is a moment of sincere and honest introspection and a determination to leap into a brighter future and then we will begin the journey into the second half of the millennium,” he noted adding that it is a journey for which members commit themselves towards establishing a Free and Professional Media.
He concluded by stating that they will unveil the Association’s calendar, of how they will begin to celebrate stating that it will be done the SLAJ way.
“This 2021! I declare it the year of SLAJ!” he ended in a jubilant mood.
